Honeywell Tech Powers Peter Mac's $105m Biomedical Manufacturing Facility

Honeywell (NASDAQ: HON) today announced that its building technology is helping to power the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s cutting-edge A$105 million cell and gene therapy manufacturing facility located in Melbourne, Australia.

Co-funded by the Australian Federal Government, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (“Peter Mac”) and individual donors, the Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) facility was completed in 2023 and is operated by the contract development and manufacturing organisation, Cell Therapies Pty Ltd. (Cell Therapies). The new facility is Australia’s only biomedical manufacturing facility where CAR T-cells and other ‘living’ cell-based therapies are produced at commercial scale to treat patients with blood cancers. As Peter Mac’s Centre of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapies’ partner manufacturer, the new manufacturing capacity enables Cell Therapies to support their IP accelerator platform, translating Australian-led research onshore.

The manufacturing facility’s building management technologies are purpose built and managed centrally through the Honeywell Enterprise Buildings Integrator (EBI) platform to address the ecosystem’s unique needs, including: (1) a new Building Management System (BMS) that controls the facility’s energy and captures data to ensure it remains compliant with stringent healthcare and pharmaceutical requirements; (2) a new operational technology (OT) security system to protect the critical work being carried out by the facility’s scientists; (3) environmental management and monitoring systems to ensure air temperature and humidity remain at optimal levels; (4) and complete redundancy of mechanical services for each of the facility’s cleanrooms.

The deployment of these technologies was particularly complex because the work had to occur in a live hospital and operating environment where infection control is critical to patient safety. The environment has also been tested against a list of requirements from the Federal Government’s Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), safeguarding the health and safety of people and ensuring that high quality cell-based products can be manufactured in the facility.

“These are bespoke building technologies that are enabling us to deliver cutting edge treatments for people with cancer. These treatments are changing lives,” said Professor Simon Harrison, director of the Centre of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapy, Peter Mac.

“We are proud to operate this world-class facility, manufacturing innovative ‘living drugs’ for Australian patients,” said Dr Bev Menner, CEO, Cell Therapies. “The large scale, high throughput manufacturing capacity combined with our highly skilled workforce represents a sovereign advanced manufacturing capability that supports cell and gene therapy product development from concept to commercialisation.”

“We are proud to partner with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to help build what is truly a one-of-its-kind facility in the southern hemisphere,” said Laura Laltrello, vice president and general manager of services, Honeywell Building Automation. “The facility is a testament to the highly customised capabilities Honeywell’s building automation technologies can deliver to organisations across the life sciences industry that are working to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.”

Peter Mac is a world-leading cancer research, education and treatment center and Australia’s only public health service dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer. It has more than 4,000 staff members, including more than 700 lab and clinical researchers, all focused on providing better cancer treatments, care and potential cures.

Cell Therapies is an Australian-based, globally active contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), specialising in cell therapy, gene therapy, regenerative medicine, and cellular immunotherapy products. Operating Australia’s only biomedical manufacturing facility where CAR T-cells and other “living” therapies can be made at a commercial scale, Cell Therapies supports the advanced manufacture of clinical trial and commercial cell and gene therapy products for patients in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Peter Mac is located within the $1 billion Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre facility. Honeywell is the services contractor to the Plenary Health consortium – also comprising Plenary Group as sponsor, investor and financial arranger, and the Grocon PCL joint venture as builder – contracted by the Victorian Government to finance, design, build, and maintain the centre for 25 years under a public-private partnership.

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